Catwoman turned 80 years old this year. As a beloved hero (and sometimes villain), she's had her fair share of adventures across all mediums. Unfortunately, her eponymous 2004 film is something every fan would rather forget, because it was more woof than meow.
Directed by Pitof, Catwoman starred Halle Berry as Patience Phillips, the designer who eventually becomes the crimefighter with cat-like abilities. From the moment Phillips replaced Selina Kyle as the character and Pitof said he didn't want his film to be too influenced by the comics, the writing was on the wall for the future four-time Golden Raspberry Award winner.
While Catwoman was the worst film about people dressed as cats until, well, 2019's Cats, it could've been much different. In fact, it had all the potential to be the spiritual successor to director Tim Burton's beloved Batmanverse.
In 1992, Burton's Batman Returns debuted to critical and financial success. While it wasn't as universally praised as 1989's Batman, there were many elements in the film that pushed the series forward. One of them was the introduction of Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman, who stole every scene she appeared in and demonstrated that there's room for women to be more than damsels in distress in the comic-book movie genre.
Realizing fans wanted to see more of Pfeiffer as the character, Warner Bros. gave the green light to a Catwoman spinoff film in 1993, with Burton set to direct and Daniel Waters locked in as the writer of the project. At this stage, Warner Bros. had already removed Burton from what would eventually become Batman Forever, due to the desire to make Batman less darker and more family-friendly.
Unfortunately, Batman Forever's success was the downfall of Burton's planned Catwoman movie. Waters turned in his script on the same day that Batman Forever opened in 1995, which he admitted was a bad move because Catwoman was the antithesis of director Joel Schumacher's movie.
Around the same time, Pfeiffer admitted she'd love to return, but it would be challenging due to motherhood and other film projects. It didn't seem like Warner Bros. was too interested in accelerating development either, as it put its trust in Schumacher's Batman. But then, 1997's Batman & Robin crashed and burned, taking the whole Dark Knight franchise down with it for several years.
Warner Bros. hadn't quite given up on Catwoman, though, breathing new life into the project at the turn of the century. In 2001, Ashley Judd signed on to the project. Speaking to Killer Movies about the part, Judd said, "I am ready to try something more different. My inspiration as a superhero is that Catwoman is a very ambivalent character. There is a lot of fun to be had with this movie, as well as a great acting experience."
Judd departed the project soon afterwards. The studio went back and forth with a few actresses before eventually settling on Berry as the movie's new lead. The rest is history -- of the kitty-litter variety.
While there's no telling how good the Pfeiffer-led Catwoman film could've been, it's unlikely that it'd be worse than the 2004 movie. Pfeiffer's charisma carried Batman Returns as she knew how to capture the multifaceted personality of Kyle. In many ways, her performance became the prototype for anyone approaching the character today. Warner Bros. well and truly missed the boat here.